From Scandinavia to Albania

The aim is to strengthen the movement and make sure everyone knows about the lagers and the logic behind the policies that have produced them. We think that it is still possible to get them closed in Italian towns and have delivered a two-month ultimatum to the minister. At the same time we are demanding general recognition for all the immigrants who are applying for permits in this period. This is a part of the great battle of mankind against neo-liberalism. We want to take action on a European scale and e-mails are not sufficient.

We want to think in local terms and strike on a global scale. We are madmen and dreamers and we still believe in the radical transformation of a world that must not resign itself to disappointment. In December we shall hold a national demonstration and, because we fly on the wings of ideas, we shall set sail across the Mediterranean: i.e. the demonstration will take place in Albania. A demonstration on the borders, against borders. It will also be a demonstration against all crimes perpetrated by the state, from the crime of the 12 December 1969, which attempted to repress the Italian movement, to that of the 23 December 1997, which tried to silence our sisters and brothers in Chiapas.

Delegations from all over Europe are invited, from the network of human rights and of the "Sans Papiers" in Zapatist Europe, in the hope of continuing with you along the routes mapped out in Amsterdam and in Venice, and in the knowledge that there is already an initiative by the European Marches against Unemployment in Vienna. Before, during and after the demonstration, various associations and groups, from Scandinavia to Albania, will be able to make direct contact, get to know one another, arrange spontaneous seminars and an itinerant European exhibition, see the Mediterranean borders of Europe and put their enthusiasm into planning new initiatives on a European scale. During these next few months we would like to meet you and make as many contacts as possible and this is why we, too, are taking action for Europe. The invitation is for 11-12 December. Further details of the initiative will be communicated but we can already assure you that there will be special trains from Imperia, Milan and Trieste, so that you are sure of a free journey to Puglia.

Our slogans are:

* IN SUPPORT OF HUMANITY AGAINST NEOLIBERALISM,
* AGAINST ALL CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN ITALY AND IN THE REST OF EUROPE,
* IN SUPPORT OF A BOYCOTT AGAINST THE ASSOCIATIONS THAT INTEND MANAGING THE CAMPS,
* IN SUPPORT OF ABOLISHING THE SCHENGEN BORDERS,
* IN SUPPORT OF CONDEMNING THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE STATE MURDERS CARRIED OUT IN BELGIUM AND IN THE REST OF EUROPE,
* AGAINST STATE KILLINGS,
* IN SUPPORT OF SOLIDARITY THROUGH WIDESPREAD CIVILIAN DISOBEDIENCE,
* IN SUPPORT OF THE FREE CIRCULATION OF PEOPLE,
* IN SUPPORT OF HISTORICAL MEMORY AND HUMAN DIGNITY,
* IN SUPPORT OF SUBSISTENCE PAY FOR ALL CITIZENS.

Whoever is ready and willing to come to Italy for preliminary contacts and for the demonstration, please indicate your support by replying to this e-mail, or write or call the
Leoncavallo Centre,
Via Watteau 7, 20100 Milan,
tel. 0039-2-6705185, fax 0039-2-6705621

Please spread this initial information and material to other associations that are concerned with Schengen, immigration and the fight against expulsions.

We believe that the rights of men and women are more important than the interests of the powerful that despise them, justifying themselves with the good of international politics and international market.

The responsability for crimes can't remain drowned by indifference and the waves of the sea.

We demand:

- a right to a universal citizenship
- a right for income for all people
- the creation of centers of help for the immigrants
- regular ship connections between Italy and Albania
- guarantees for a free entry on Italian territory

We demand that the state takes responsibility for its crimes.

10 December:
Reading of human rights on a petrol port platform.
11 December:
Free train from Milan - Nordest - Rome - Ancona for Brindisi
12 December:
9:00 departure for Valona with the boat
11:00 on the mediterranean sea: writing of "a pact of hope and dignity"
13:00 arrival in Valona (Albania), encounter with local people
17:00 departure from Valona with refugees for Italy, return of the boat to Albania in the evening.

Milan Social Center "Ya Basta!"
Per informazioni:
Segreteria organizzativa del viaggio
Radio Sherwood tel.049/8752129 - 8762864

Per sottoscrizioni:
cc/pt n.17505355 intestato a Teleradiocity Vicolo Pontecorvo 1/a 35100 Padova
Con causale "Viaggio a Valona"

The armed popular insurrection against the corrupt regime of Sali Berisha that took Albania by storm during the first three weeks of March, makes us give it the characterization of Albanian March. The insurgents of the South forced the totalitarian regime of the Albanian president Sali Berisha to enormous retreats and strategic sink.
On Thursday the 13th of March, the Albanian state, identified with Berisha's mechanism, has been reduced to a few square metres around the centre of Tirana and namely the Desmoret avenue. The presidential palace and the governmental buildings were all there, in both sides of the avenue. The insurgent areas of the albanian capital were only four kilometres away and the most fluid power's state that tended to the limits of a gap lasted nearly twenty hours. The sensation of the geometrical disruption of the state authority made you speculate its impending and total collapse. After the delay of the three previous days, the northern praetorians got organised and armed under the leadership of the notorious Saban Memia. The SHIK secret services and its head, Baskim Gazidente, were Berisha's second source of support. His protection circle is strengthened by his presidential guard, consisting of the most close, faithful and related people. The terror in the northern suburbs of Tirana and the threat of a possible massacre give the ex-communists an excuse to change their policy, in fear of a popular wave of insurrection they couldn't control.
These critical hours, the ex-communists, have decided optics and practice. The organising secretary of the Socialist Party, Dokle -who had repressed the opposition's mobilizations when he was the all powerful minister of Interior, in Hodja's regime- is very specific declaring that the Socialists are against violent and armed actions and that they seek the constitutional legitimacy of their movements. In this way they choose to compromise with Berisha and to undertake to cover the power's gap with the machinery of the ex-Hodja's Secret Services, Sigourim. It is very clear that the ex-communists, with the experience and the tradition of the development of power mechanisms, they exploited the popular insurrection's dynamics, they saved the power system in Albania and they became the governmental partner of Berisha's Democratic Party. That's how a complex balance setting is formed: a multiform power struggle and the South decided to satisfy its demands.

From Hodja's regime to Berisha's

After the elections of March 1992 and Berisha's accession to power, a new dominating group was formed, mainly from the northern areas of the country and Berisha's native region, that became the new cadres potential of the new albanian power. It was a machinery of praetorians, suzerains in Tirana, with two parts: the members of the Democratic Party and the state machinery and the SHIK Secret Services. A machinery of massive terrorism. The Albanians believed in the new age that supposedly started with the political change in '92, but soon they saw their dreams, not only betrayed, but also dispersed in one night.
A whole generation (majority of the albanian people) that was raised during Hodja's regime, believed in the false dream of the capitalistic democracy. On the contrary, they suffered from misery, poverty, emigration, racism abroad and police state in the interior. The piramidical para-banking forms, where they invested not only their dreams but also their economies looked as the only way out. Instead of better days, they watched the "country of eagles" being transformed into a "country of the sharpers". Capitalism in Albania, primitive and irregular, was based on the tendering of the false hopes of prosperity to the mass of the Albanian people. With the para-banking forms, Sali Berisha had a strong weapon in his hands, by satisfying temporarily the depositors and dissimulating the cruel reality. What practically happened in Albania, between '92-'97, was intense exploitation and accumulation of capital, or, in simple words, they took a lot from a lot of people in short time.
The great inequality and the interweaving interests between government officials and mafiozos, transformed Albania to a huge arena of arms and drugs contraband (with the participation of police and military forces), as well as fuel and cigarettes contraband (with the participation of cadres of the Democratic Party and the government -e.g. Skiponia company) and a washing tank of dirty money. At the opposite side, there were the masses, the agrarian population and the proletarians.

The beginning of the end

Things started to become clear after the elections of fraud and violence, of the 26th of May 1996 and the first signs that outlined the interweaving interests and the prospect of the impending end of the pyramids. The beginning of the end is marked by the report of the International Monetary Fund that pointed out the risk of collapse and threatened the government with a financial rupture between the I.M.F. and Albania.

In December, the first para-bank, "Shoudia", goes bankrupt and in January, two more, "Jaferi" and "Populit", close down. The first manifestations took part in Vlore, on January 16, with the participation of simple men, immigrants and middle class.
The Albanians, who shared up their money for a better future with such a hard work, when they realized that they had been robbed by a caste of people and, since they had nothing to lose any more, they transformed their desperation and bitterness to rage against the corrupted and interweaving power of Berisha's regime. The more extensively they felt the exploitation, the more massively and dynamically they rose up against Berisha's totalitarian regime that they considered as the exclusive responsible of the fraud against the whole of trhe Albanian people. At the debris of such a country, one cannot protest neither with marches, nor with whistles. Kalashnikov becomes the symbol of the albanian people who, without any ideological base or political formation, took the lead in their life and made an evident popular insurrection threatening directly the regime. Their intentions were manifestly expressed in an event that took place in Loushnia, on January 25th, when enraged habitants attacked the president of the Democratic Party, and vice-president of the government, Tritan Sehou, and pilloried him to public with a leek in his mouth and a second one in his ass. Clashes between policemen and demonstrators took place in Tirana. On January the 30th, the opposition's parties formed the "Forum for Democracy", that is the party umbrella of the protest. On February the 6th, began the citizen's attacks to police stations In Vlore, but the insurrection culminated during the night of the 28th of February to the 1st of March, with the massive conflicts between citizens and governmental forces and the first entry in the army camp, in Vlore.

March with insurrections in Albania

On the 2nd of March, Berisha imposes contingency plans and declares that he doesn't have to confront a simple protest, but whole areas of the country that are hostile. The party opposition -that participated with few forces in the two-month mobilizations- demanded a caretaker government composed by technocrats, that would lead to a holding elections. The situation reminds latin-american regimes. The public gatherings of over four persons are forbidden, the circulation between 8:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. is prohibited, police is free to fire and the press is restricted: the two government newspapers that are being published and the governmental T.V. are the only sources of information.
Tirana are being terrorized by the police and many areas of the south are no more under the control of the military and police forces. The imposition of the contingency plans is undertaken by a mixed repressive force: the armed units of the Ministry of the Interior, the SHIK Secret Services and the ZABIST police anti-riot squads, under the leadership of Baskim Gazidede, an ex-mathematician and president of the Muslim Intellectuals' Association, who was promoted to a general.
On Wednesday, the 5th of March, the government recognized the problem that there was in Saranda, , Vlore, Delvin and Fieri, and blamed the units' commanders as well as the General Chief of the Army Force, Seme Kosova, whom it sends away. This day is quite important as the governmental forces seemed unable to control the south.
The governmental military operations in Delvin -aiming to interrupt the communication between Saranda and Gjirokaster- failed completely and so, the insurgent areas could easily be unified. The uncontrolled and confused situation is the first thing that threatens the albanian power as well as its several western supports.
On the same day, the voice of the american capital, the Washington's newspaper "Wall Street Journal", compares the situation in Albania with the riot in Los Angeles and tries to present the insurgents as instigated by the ex-communists and the mafia. But, unfortunately for them, this is not the truth. It's a whole world that took the arms, not to play, but to level them at Berisha's regime. The lack of political formations of this popular insurrection influenced its formation and allowed the opposition party to make the first step towards an agreement with the albanian president, on the 6th of March.

Organization steps of the insurgents

The determination of the insurgents leads them to form the popular salvation committees, where they demand specific requests: all their financial reimbursements, the formation of a caretaker multi-party government, the holding of new elections and the voting of a new Constitution and a new electoral law. At the same time they try to form some procedures for the provisioning and the defence of their insurgent areas. On the 8th of March, Berisha receives a severe blight as he is unable to control Gjirokaster, where the military units are dispersed.

Agreement of the parties with Berisha

On Sunday the 9th of March, as Berisha is incapable to control the situation in the south and to maintain the control of the north, he proceeds to an extreme retreat and agrees to the formation of a caretaker government with the participation of all parties that will hold the new elections in three months (June). He also demands the surrender of the arms. Nothing for the money of the people who reject the agreement, since the problem of the return of their money is not solved and the person that symbolizes their lost -that is Berisha- remains.

South: treason

The insurgents accuse the politicians and the parties that signed the agreement with Berisha that they are "interested only in their power and not in the people who are the losers" (Comitee of Vlore) and denounce them as traitors. That's why it is not strange that he wave of the insurrection becomes an avalanche that spreads with the massive disobedience of the military and the police forces. Sali Berisha, panicked and startled, seems to beg the opposition for help, as the ring tightens up around Tirana. So, he offers the prime-ministry to the Socialists, something incredible until then.
When the insurgents, first in the city of Vlore, made clear that they would not accept any agreement that would not include the commitment for their money and the removal of Berisha. At the same time , from Gjirokaster, the insurgent areas emit the invitation for the formation of citizens' councils in every town and village that will undertake the management of their defence and declare their political presence as a third pole.
On Tuesday the 11th of March, the front of the left governmental forces and the insurgents, form an arc from Blishan to Balshi, Klitsova and South Erbashan, 90 km from Tirana. Berisha, when he realizes that nothing can stop the the extension - spreading (and not development) of the insurrections and the threat for the albanian capital and his own life, he puts into practice the plan of preparedness for armed conflict with the employment of terror by the Secret Services and the members of the Democratic Party -mainly from the North. The same night, as tracks with armed Berishians agitate Tirana, everyone can understand what's going tro happen next.

Thursday the 13th of March: the most critical day

On Thursday the 13th of March, the insurrections approach the albanian capital. Around Tirana and on the road to the airport and Durres, you can hear all day long shootings while there is complete inexistence of all government, military and police forces. The tension of the day was so high, that we felt, moment by moment, the wave that was approaching. At noon, we witnessed the entry of thousands of citizens to the camps at the fringes of Tirana.
Everyone -but everyone- included in one phrase, all their demands: "Our money and the head of Berisha". It is Characteristic that I heard many people saying that "tonight we will play football with his head". We could see clearly the abolition of every governmental, military and police power and it was a matter of hours to watch the popular insurrection arrive in the centre of Tirana. We had the feeling that that night would be the most critical. Who could stop this momentum?
The praetorians of Berisha's regime undertake the defence, through the practice of terrorisation at the suburbs of Tirana, where they are organized in gangs of armed murderers of a blood thirsty master.

Tirana: field of conflicts/ Turn of the Socialists

Around the presidential building, where Berisha is being guarded, and the Desmoret avenue, where all the governmental buildings are, the shootings are continuous and the tanks are deafening. At these moments, socialists' politics lead to the compromise with Berisha, from which they don't demand to resign but they "earn" the participation in the government, the constitutional legality and the official pardon to their imprisoned socialist leader, Fatos Nano, who had escaped in the meanwhile.
The former Sigiourim undertakes the task of covering the power gap and the new government of Baskim Fino decides, on Friday the 14th, the formation of a new police force and invites ex and actual cadres as well as new persons to participate. The target of the plan is the reformation of an elementary machinery of control. The attempts of the new government aim the formation of new institutional procedures, new power mechanisms and new state and governmental functions.
The ex-opposition and now government is clearly dissociated of the insurgents and threatens them with violent repression if the effort to incorporate the salvation committees into local management structures fails (that is to regional power centres)
Meanwhile, all the prisons open and the prisoners pour out. In the prison where Fatos Nano had been held when he was in danger -because of the Berishians- there were the penal prisoners that defended him, under the leadership of Nehat Koula.
After three days, it seems that the balance between the opponent forces is being stabilized, but also that a multiform power struggle is being expressed. The situation is very fluid, with more variables than constants.

Omissions, delays and dissension with the South

On one side, the Socialists and the members of the Democratic Party express different opinions and on the other, the new government confirms its dissension with the south. Berisha, who has confined with his presidential guard, seems to want to intervene in the new government. That's why some people start to say that Berisha is back. The measures for the restoration of the order and the public functions are materialized with difficulty and Bashkim Fino declares that he doesn't accept ultimatum for the satisfaction of the demands. Many people support that the new government doesn't worth a thing without the south and the start to stammer out a few words about mistakes, omissions and slow paces that permitted Berisha not only to consolidate his position, but also to proceed to a display of power.
On Thursday the 20th of March, he commits a blight upon Fino's government, by rejecting from the parliament -which is under control of the Democratic Party- the governmental proposals for the lifting of the press restraints and the transmission of the state-TV and Radio's supervision from the Parliament to the new government

Manifesto of the 18 insurgent areas

On the 28th of March, delegations from the 18 insurgent areas and the salvation comitees, vefilate the insurgents' manifesto:

- they denounce the claims that consider their insurrection as being instigated by foreign centres
- they don't accept the parliament as representative legislative body and demand the formation of a new organization that will express the free will of the people
- they support Fino's government but demand its total independence and Berisha's ousting.
- they invite the government and the parties to cooperate with the Salvation committee, in order to form the public management and the executive power
- they demand the participation of the Salvation Committees to the conference table of the political parties (a kind of informal council of political leaders)

As an epilogue

The epilogue has not been written yet. However, history has recorded that people rose up by arms against a totalitarian and corrupted regime of exploitation and power. Every Berisha's step of retreat constitutes a victorious action for the insurgents.
In Albania nothing is definitely decided. Hard times are just beginning, now that the momentum that could sweep away everything -even if nothing has been planned- is inhibited.
What matters now is the resistance to time, the determination and the capabilities of each side.

*****************************
ALPHA
Anarchist Weekly
P.O.BOX 31809
10035 ATHENS
e-mail: alfanarc@compulink,gr
*****************************